The Atrorian Gate
by Herr Wozzeck
Summary: Just months after Tabuu was defeated, a new threat rises in the Smash World, and it once again becomes a race to save the world. However, the stakes are much higher this time...
1. Prologue

The Atrorian Gate

The Atrorian Gate

Prologue

_Many years ago, a great prophecy was foretold by the elders; one that told of endless bloodshed and violence._

_Many years ago, the prophecy's threat came true, and millions lost their lives in a great invasion the likes of which the world had never seen before._

_Many years ago, eight heroes rose out of the ashes, and with their great skills fought against this evil and succeeded._

_Many years ago, the heroes banished the evil from the prophecy, creating an elaborate seal that would be very difficult to break._

_Many years ago, peace returned._

_But this peace will not last long._

_Recently, the seal was weakened by the items that surround the surroundings in eternal darkness._

_Recently, the seal was weakened further by one's tampering with the essence of the world._

_Recently, the gate creaked open._

_Recently, a powerful sorcerer stepped out of the gate._

_And soon, the Atrorians will come to invade us once again._

_And soon, death will take over the world like a raging river plowing through everything in its path._

_And soon, there will be blood once again…_


	2. Chapter 1

Well, hi there children! What's up?

This was for an FFQ prompt in FESS again. This time, I had to craft an Adventure mode for an SSB game, so there you have it. That's all that inspired this, really.

Now, there's a version of this on DeviantArt, too, actually. It's worth checking out both versions, though, because there are lots of differences. Where here it's basically a full-blown adventure story, on DeviantArt the story is told more in form of SSE than here. So I reccomend that you check out both versions and comment on both.

You know the rest. Disclaimers are as follows:

Super Smash Brothers does not belong to me. It belongs to the guys at Nintendo and Hal. Any characters you don't know are mine.

So there you have it. Here's the fic, and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 1

One. Two. Three. Four.

On to the other side.

One. Two. Three. Four.

There. Warm-up was done.

Fox McCloud stood up and stretched after his little pre-match warm-up session. He had a rather intense session this time, but he knew that this session was important especially.

It had been three months since the threat posed by Tabuu had been thwarted, and pretty soon after everybody had gotten back to the normal swing of things. Many people had gone back to where they were used to being, and they had continued with their lives normally.

And soon enough, everybody had gotten back to fighting each other on a regular basis. Now that the stadium had been restored to its former glory from being caught in the clutches of subspace, matches were going on very frequently.

That day's match between Fox and his friend Diddy Kong would not be any different; it had been planned many days ahead of time, and the fox was only glad to oblige. After all, it had been a while since he had last seen Diddy after he had helped Diddy find Donkey Kong during the Subspace invasion.

Still, Fox had a feeling that something big was going to happen during the course of the day's match. It was a nagging feeling, but Fox knew he had to cast such a feeling aside, which he was only so glad to do.

So the fox did his warm-up exercises, and after jogging in place for a few seconds, he found that there were two minutes to match time.

He decided he would walk over to the entrance of the arena anyways, since he really had nothing better to do.

So he walked out of the locker room that he had been warming up in, and he walked down a few empty hallways to find somebody at the entrance.

"Are you ready for the match?" asked the person at the entrance to the arena.

"Yeah," said Fox. "I'm ready."

And after that, there was only a long wait ahead of him, so he leaned against the wall and pondered about the coming match.

* * *

The woods were a fearsome place to be, although it was better to be stuck there in the morning where the creatures could not get to you than during the night.

At least, that was what the man walking through the trees figured out as he was making his way through the woods, holding the ends of his long gray cloak together as he walked through it.

He had no idea where he was. He had no idea how to get to the stadium from where he was.

But he knew what he had to do once he got there. And once he did that, he knew that the Smash world would never be the same.

But it was on an order of a superior of his, so he would do whatever it would take to follow his master's orders.

Quickly, he trudged along the forest.

And when he found himself outside of the woods after about a minute of walking, he was able to see the stadium looming in the air a very long distance away from him.

He looked at the stadium first, judging how long it would take to get there, and sighing when he realized that by foot he would never make it there.

He then brought a hand out of his cloak, and after a short chant ran through his mind, he found that he had still retained his magical powers.

He smirked underneath the cover of the hood, and after a very brief incantation appeared in his head, he disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

"Ready?"

Fox readied himself, getting into his fighting stance after just taking his position on the one side of the arena. At the other side, Diddy Kong did the same.

And right then, Peach was able to feel the tense atmosphere that was pervading the arena just before the match started.

"Go!"

Diddy started by pulling out his popgun and firing a peanut at the advancing fox, who halted in his advance to set up a blue force field around him that launched the peanut back at the unsuspecting ape. Diddy, not about to be undone, jumped over the peanut as it whizzed back in his direction, and Fox continued his advance.

Peach stood in the arena's front row, watching the display of violence next to her friend, the princess Zelda. Also with them was Diddy's companion Donkey Kong and a friend of theirs that they had recently made in the stadium whose name was Isaac. The four of them watched the fight as it went on, Isaac occasionally sifting a hand through his somewhat unkempt dirty blonde hair to keep it from getting in his line of sight.

So when Diddy managed to dodge an aerial kick from Fox, the three of them were in tune to the action just as much as the rest of the crowd.

After the ape dodged the aerial kick, he went in with a punch that connected with the fox. It did not send him flying far, however, so Fox was able to immediately counterattack with a kick that sent Diddy back a few feet.

The ape took this time to fire another peanut at the fox, however, and as Fox dodged this he pulled out his own blaster. He then fired a bunch of shots at Diddy, all of them connecting but failing to make the monkey flinch as he ran towards the vulpine.

Diddy then did a flip in the air, latching on to Fox and delivering a blow after he had jumped off. Fox went for a punch this time, but the ape dodged this easily and delivered a kick combo that ended with Fox being whipped by Diddy's tail. The ape retreated after that, and while the fox was still lying on the floor dazed he fired another peanut.

Fox was able to roll to the side to dodge said peanut, however, but he was unprepared for the banana peel that Diddy then pulled from nowhere and tossed at him. Thus, when he got back on his feet, he found himself colliding with the earth again. He quickly regained his footing, however, but he did not regain it fast enough for Diddy to come charging in, delivering a kick to the fox's chest and sending him back.

The fox flipped onto his feet, and with a glare in his eyes, he struck a pose, flames leaping up all around him as he charged up an attack. Diddy knew what was coming next, and he ran in the other direction to get out of the way, but before he could get far, Fox leapt at the ape, colliding into him with a great enough force to send Diddy flying. When the ape started to fall to the earth, the fox followed up with a kick that would make Diddy fly even higher.

And when he returned to the ground, the ape was a proud trophy lying on the ground.

The crowd began to applaud the fox's victory as he slowly walked up to the trophy that was Diddy Kong.

After giving the base of the trophy a tap, a flash of light came from Diddy, and he was back in a normal form.

The audience erupted with applause as the two combatants acknowledged the audience with waves of their hands.

However, something came within Fox's hearing range, and he had heard a swooshing sound when the crowd gasped.

"Hmph. Impressive," said a voice around them as the swooshing sound died down a littlw.

Fox and Diddy turned around to find a figure standing right behind them, a long black cloak hiding all of his facial expressions.

"Who are you?" asked Fox.

"Oh, I'm not going to say that just yet," said the figure. "Let's see what you're made of first."

During the entire match, Peach, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Isaac had managed to stand still. However, now that they knew their friends were in danger, they knew they could not stay.

"Hey!" shouted Isaac from the stands. "What do you think you're doing in here, anyways?"

"Isaac, please," said Zelda. "Don't provo—!"

"And you challenge me too?" asked the figure. "Come on in, dear sir. Maybe your friends will tag along?"

Peach and Donkey Kong looked at Isaac, who nodded to the two of them indicating what was coming next. Zelda shook her head, wondering what Isaac had been thinking when he said that.

Peach was the first to jump out, and as she unleashed her parasol to float gracefully down next to Fox, Zelda used Fayrore's Wind to stand next to Diddy. Donkey Kong and Isaac both opted to jump onto the arena, and they ran over to the group just as Peach touched the ground.

The cloaked figure simply held a hand up as the six put up a fighting stance.

"So, you think you can beat me?" asked the figure. "Let's see how you do after this!"

The figure snapped his fingers, and an orange aura suddenly sprang up from his hands, and as soon as it had begun spreading from his hand it had already left the arena at a speed fast enough to cover the entire world.

However, nothing affected the fighters in any way that they could see.

"What was the point of that?" asked Fox. "That didn't do anything!"

"Oh, it did something, dear sir," responded the figure. "But you'll have to find out what it did on your own!"

The fighters stood their ground, not knowing that things would change for the worse afterwards.

Eventually, though, the cloaked figure redirected his hand towards the fighters, and he charged up an energy ball.

At this, the six fighters spread out, Peach pulling a vegetable from the ground and Diddy and Fox pulling out their respective guns. Isaac started charging up a spell, preparing to unleash it when the time was right.

Donkey Kong unleashed the first blow, a large fist sailing straight for the cloaked figure in hopes of breaking his concentration.

However, the figure simply teleported to another part of the arena just before the punch connected. Peach picked this time to toss her vegetable at the figure, but with a wave of his free hand it was redirected for the ape that had attempted to punch him, the ape successfully getting socked in the eye by the vegetable as the figure continued charging his spell.

Isaac drew his sword and struck next, and to confuse the figure Fox began to fire his blaster. However, just as the Venus adept's sword connected with the figure, he found himself flying back as the blow literally leapt off of the cloak, and the cloak also reflected every single one of the fox's blaster shots in random directions. Some of them hit Zelda, who reflected the shots back with Nayru's Love, and some of them hit the then helpless Peach. No matter what happened, the shots were not connecting with the evil man.

Diddy then went in and fired with his popgun, but the round bounced off of his cloak harmlessly, and instead each round that Diddy fired managed to get redirected to one of his allies.

This did not deter the fox or the smaller ape, and they kept firing, gritting their teeth as the rounds continuously bounced off of the man's cloak. All the while, Donkey Kong, Isaac, and even Zelda tried to land physical blows on the cloaked figure, all to no avail, with this useless resistance lasting for quite a while.

Poor Peach was hit especially hard; all of the shots from the peanuts and the blaster that were being reflected back at her eventually became too much to handle for her, and after a while of taking the shots she just collapsed on the ground, having been knocked out cold before she could even approach the figure to land a proper hit.

Isaac took note of this, running over to the princess' side and intending to cast heal as quickly as he could.

However, the man's incantation ended, and he raised his hands in the air.

The adept knew a powerful spell from a normal spell, so he realized that he had to get out of there.

Without another word, he picked up Peach in his arms, and he quickly ran Teleport through his mind. With the experience that he had, Isaac knew he would only go as far as the outside of the arena, but mentally he told himself that if he kept running he could get the princess to safety.

And just as Isaac disappeared from the arena, the figure plunged his fist into the ground, his cloak flying all around him as suddenly a great earthquake was summoned. By then, the spectators were screaming in fright, so that did not help matters much at all when the ground suddenly flew up to meet them, and the people collided with the ground so hard that the ones that survived were highly bewildered when nobody was turned into a trophy.

As soon as Isaac got away from the arena, he felt the tremors and ducked down as quickly as he could. The entire time, he kept low to the ground, cradling the injured Peach in his arms as he gritted his teeth in anticipation. Thankfully, nothing happened outside of the arena, so when the sound subsided he was able to bring himself to look back at the arena.

Before going back in, he decided to get Peach healed, so he laid her down on the ground, passed a hand over the princess's forehead, and muttered a quick incantation, thus healing her rather well.

The princess then sat up and looked around, her eyes meeting Isaac's for a brief moment.

"What happened?" asked Peach.

"Honestly?" asked Isaac in response. "I have no idea. Should we go back in there?"

"Why?" asked Peach. "We're outside?"

"I had to dodge a spell," replied Isaac. "And when it affects the entire arena with one injured woman in there, what can you do?"

"So we're out here because you tried to save me?" said the princess.

"Yeah," replied the adept. "I should have stayed, but I didn't know what to do against him. He's too powerful."

"You're telling me," said Peach as she stood up and brushed some dust off of her pink dress. "I hope the others are all right, then."

"There's only one way to find that out," said Isaac. "We go back in."

"Indeed," said the princess. "Let's go in."

The two of them then walked into the arena, and upon walking in they found the place to be a mess. The dust still had not settled, and there were pillars of earth everywhere where the arena floor used to be even.

Peach let out a gasp as she entered the arena.

"My goodness…" said the princess.

Isaac only trudged forwards, the princess following him slowly.

"Oh dear," said Isaac. "This is pretty extreme. I hope our friends are okay…"

They were not able to see any of their friends, however; almost everybody that had been in the stadium had disappeared. Even when they checked the tops of the pillars of earth, they were unable to find their friends.

It was obvious that the man was very powerful indeed.

However, before Isaac was able to call it quits, Peach let out a loud gasp, her finger going into a point at a certain direction.

Lying close to one of the pillars was Diddy Kong, his limbs sprawled all over the place and his eyes sealed shut. When Isaac and Peach ran over, they were able to feel the coldness of Diddy Kong's skin go right through the glove and into their hands.

"He's not a trophy…" said Peach. "What happened?"

"That man is dangerous," he said. "He took away our ability to be trophetized…"

The princess looked at Isaac, shock showing on her features.

"Are you serious?" asked Peach. "It was that orange aura, wasn't it?"

"I think so," said the adept. "Why he did that is a mystery even I can't solve."

"So that's what he was here for," said the princess.

"Apparently," said Isaac. "We've got our work cut out for us. Now we've got to get going."

"You mean finding a way to defeat him, right?" asked Peach as they slowly walked towards the arena's exit.

"Yeah," said Isaac. "And we should find it as quickly as possible. The fate of the Smash world rests on a lot of shoulders.

The earth adept could have sworn he heard the princess grumble, and he could not blame her; she was part of the group of warriors that had months earlier defeated Tabuu. He figured that she thought peace was finally attained when suddenly this threat came along.

He shook his head, and acknowledged that a long quest lay ahead of the two of them…


	3. Chapter 2

And we're back in action, people. Let's see here; so far, the Smashers can die now. You know what happens next, right?

Anyways, has anybody read the DeviantArt version yet? The only commentator I've had there is my dear friend RoyalFanatic, and she hasn't been seen here. And also, I know that some people have alerted and/or fav'd the version, so if you could please review this chapter that would be great!

You know the rest. Here's the chapter, and enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 2

"What in the world was-a that?"

"Honestly, Mario? I have no idea…"

Mario stood next to Pit, watching the events that were taking shape in the stadium unfold. They had harbored quite a bit of shock, and as they realized the effects of the aura, they knew that somebody was not playing around anymore.

The plumber was visiting his angel friend in the Skyworld when Pit invited him to watch a match in the stadium from the looking glass that he had in the hall that the angel lived in. It turned out that after the match itself somebody came in and cast a whole bunch of powerful spells.

Mario even recognized a few of the faces; he noticed Peach getting warped out of there by somebody else just before the pillars of earth rose up.

And after that, he was pretty clueless as to what was going on since the pillars obscured the view.

Pit was just as shocked by the events, but he showed it more ardently than the plumber could ever hope to show it. So it came as not surprise to the plumber when he let out as loud a gasp as he possibly could.

"So, what do you think the orange aura did?" asked Pit.

"Don't ask-a me!" said Mario. "I don't-a know what that was!"

"Well, you might want to ask me…"

"Palutena!" said Pit excitedly, turning on his heels as he heard the goddess' voice.

The waterfall in the center of the hallway lit up, and then Palutena's image appeared beckoning to Pit.

Pit and Mario both walked over to where the goddess' image hovered above the waterfall, their gaze on the goddess' image as it floated above the waterfall.

"That orange aura is strange," said the goddess, her jade-colored hair flowing behind her even with the lack of wind in the room. "I inspected it, however, and it tears away at the fabric of our world."

"In other words…" said Pit.

"Nobody can be turned into a trophy anymore," stated Palutena simply.

"Are-a you serious?" asked Mario.

"I am afraid it has happened again," said the goddess, her stare aiming at the floor. "A long time ago, somebody else came up with this horrid spell, and thousands were killed. Thankfully, the caster was stopped by a group of heroes, but the loss led to the opening of the gate."

"The gate?" asked Pit. "You mean the Atrorian Gate?"

The plumber sent a confused gaze right at the angel.

"The Atrorian Gate?" asked Mario.

"Yes," said Palutena, turning her gaze back at Pit and Mario. "If it was ever to open and the evil to be fully unleased, then this world would cease to exist."

"And if we can't-a die, the gate can't-a open?" asked the plumber.

"Essentially, yes," said Palutena.

"Well, what are-a we waiting for?" asked Mario. "Let's stop this-a caster so that the gate doesn't-a open!"

"Mario!" said Pit. "I don't have a weapon!"

"Easily solved," said Pit's goddess. She then held her hand out to Pit.

From her hands came a bow of an odd complexion; where the wood of the bow would be there was a rather long blade. Mario knew the bow well, however, so he was not surprised at all when the brown-haired angel took it from the goddess's hands, bowing as he did.

Then, where there was nothing before, Pit found his wrists suddenly get encircled by two or so rings that levitated around his wrists. These glowed rather brightly in the dim lighting of the hall, and the angel bowed to Palutena when he received them again.

"Thank you," said Pit. "I shall do my best."

Palutena nodded, and the angel then turned to the red-bearing plumber, who nodded to Pit.

"Let's-a go!" said Mario.

Then, a door to the outside opened from far away, and before anything else could be said Pit had flown out of there, Mario hopping on the clouds after him as the two of them started their new quest…

* * *

Kirby looked up at the sky curiously, wondering what the orange aura was that had gone over the world was.

He had just been strolling around the desert the way he normally would when he had seen an orange aura fly over the world.

He was rather curious as to exactly what the aura was, but unfortunately he had no leads on where the aura could lead, so he was stuck looking at the sky pondering exactly what the aura was.

The pink puffball had been sitting in a patch of sand for a while wondering, actually; the aura was that confusing to the puffball. It had come from nowhere, and it had travelled so fast that he knew it had to have covered the entire world at least once by the time he saw it. But whatever could have caused such an aura?

What was not confusing was the very bad feeling that Kirby had in his gut about the aura; no matter what, the puffball was not able to dismiss the fact that he knew it would result in something very big in the Smash world.

He did not have much time to ponder on the subject any more, though, for in the middle of pondering the statement, he heard the crunch of footsteps on sand heading closer to him.

He turned his head curiously to find a very odd creature going up to him. It looked very much like a human, except that it was covered completely in a strange cross between flesh and the darkest metal, and that it had a hunched back. It was also rather hideous in that the veins were showing on the back of the creature. Every single vein stood out magnificently, and indeed it was a sight to behold.

The creature stopped a little bit in front of Kirby, and then it growled at the puffball.

"Poyo?" asked Kirby.

The creature gave the puffball no time to do anything else, for then it lunged in Kirby's direction. The puffball managed to jump out of the way, however, but before he could react again, the creature lunged onto the puffball.

Kirby did not need to get much more of an opening, however; for then he had his hammer out and he was able to whack the creature away from him before it could do any real damage. The creature stumbled back, and it glared at the puffball without eyes. This gave Kirby the edge he needed to go in for another good whack with the hammer.

The creature got extremely annoyed by Kirby's advantage, however, so he rushed in again. This time, though, Kirby had time to jump up, an advantage that the puffball gladly took as he flapped his rather small arms a few times to get over the evil creature.

Not about to be undone, the creature launched itself at Kirby once again, but this time the puffball opened his mouth wide and inhaled the entire creature into his mouth, his body puffing out as the monster squirmed inside of Kirby.

The puffball found there was no use in swallowing it whole, however, so he spat it out, and a star that was once the creature flew out of his mouth to a spot a few feet away from the puffball before the star reverted to being the creature that had attacked him.

Before Kirby could do much else, an arrow shot into the creature, and then it let out a ghastly howl before it completely dissolved into a small ball of red liquid that hovered in the air for a split second before it fell to the ground.

The puffball turned just in time, for then he jumped back just as the figure of Mario landed in the spot that Kirby had once been standing in. It was then that Kirby noticed Pit flying towards them, and almost a second after Kirby had noticed the angel he flew down onto the ground.

"Hey, Kirby!" said Pit. "Long time no see, eh?"

"Poyo!" replied Kirby, jumping up in glee as he saw his friends again.

"Yeah," said Mario. "What is-a that?"

As he asked the question, he pointed at the pool of red that had gathered where the ball had once hovered.

Pit looked at the pool of red that had formed from where the creature had fallen, and then all three of the figures advanced towards the pool of red liquid.

"What is-a that?" asked Mario.

"I have no idea," said Pit. "But whatever it is, it must be the thing that is making up these creatures."

"Poyo?" asked Kirby.

The angel looked at the puffball.

"What are you saying?" asked Pit. "Are you nuts? I can't stab you with my bow! It'll just turn you into—"

Pit's sentence was interrupted by a growl that came from behind them. The three of them turned their heads and saw a group of about sixteen of the creatures in front of them. They all growled at the group almost instinctively, and they all bore a menacing glare in their small eyes.

"Oh-a dear," said Mario. "There are more of-a those things?"

"Poyo!" said Kirby. "Po poyo yo poy yopopoyo!"

"Whatever you say," said Pit. "Let's bring these things down!"

The group went into their fighting stances as the monsters charged at Mario, Pit, and Kirby, and right before the group was on them, all three of them jumped.

Quite a bit of pandemonium ensued from there. Mario and Kirby were busy jumping off of all of the creatures, landing blows with their fists, feet, or hammer (in Kirby's case) whenever one of the creatures tried to fly up to catch them. Pit hovered above the crowd most of the time, jumping off of a creature every now and then when his wings could not hold him in the air for much longer. Whenever the angel touched down, he would add his blade to the confusion that was being caused by Mario and Kirby's appendages, and when he was in the air he would fire his arrows down into the crowd. It took a rather long time to get everybody in the group down, however; they all looked exactly alike, so they were never quite able to tell who was getting beaten up the most until they dissolved into blood upon the slightest physical contact. What was clear was that the crowd eventually thinned to one, and by then the one that had survived was very badly beaten, and all it took was a fist from Mario to finish it.

The group touched the ground at the same time, and then they looked in the direction that the creatures came from.

"Well, if there are-a more where those-a came from, then let's-a see what is over-a there," said Mario.

"Agreed," replied Pit.

"Poyo!" added Kirby.

Mario nodded to them and the three of them began their trek along the desert.

* * *

It had truly been a while. And yet the first thing that he had seen was the orange aura.

Roy had seen plenty of strange things, but he never thought he would see something so bizarre as orange aura.

He had been sitting in front of a lake that was surrounded by a large forest for the past few hours, wondering where everybody would be, hands sifting through his red hair after a strong gust of wind blew it this way and that. It had been a while since Roy had last stepped into the Smash world, and he was kind of beginning to regret going back to see some old friends of his.

But a part of him paid his doubts no heed. In fact, Roy was having a good time entertaining the air with his fantasies.

"Man…" he was saying to himself. "I wonder if Link is still trying to save Zelda. Man, it was fun rescuing her that one time. They're nice people; I hope that she's okay…"

He sat there talking to himself so much that when the earth began to rumble beneath his butt, he paid it no heed until the tremors became especially strong. When this happened, Roy stood up abruptly and looked around.

"What's going on?" he asked to nobody in particular.

His eyes fell on the piece of forest directly behind him, and as soon as they fell on the said spot a large spire began to rise from the ground, followed by a set of four spires surrounding it and then a dome that came up on top of a rectangular building.

"What the—?" asked Roy, his eyes widening as he stumbled backwards and fell.

As soon as Roy got himself back on his feet, he ran into the woods for cover, his lavender cape almost getting caught on one of another set of four spires that had just begun to rise from the ground.

And then the building rose out of the ground, and before the swordsman was able to figure out what was going on the building slowed its ascent, coming to a stop right when a large doorway was visible.

Roy's mouth gaped in wonder.

"What is that?" asked the swordsman.

He looked upon an incredibly tall building that literally touched the heavens from where the prince was standing. The walls were painted a screaming white, veins of rubies and sapphires standing out from cracks in the walls that shimmered in the sunlight. The spires were made of emeralds, and Roy could have sworn that the door was crafted entirely out of alexandrite.

Before he could make another move, though, he hid deeper in the forest as he heard a whoosh of wind from around where he was. When the sound ended, Roy looked from the cover of the tree that he was hiding behind to find that in front of the building stood a cloaked figure, his grip resting hard on the struggling figure of a young woman whose brown hair somehow remained down around her shoulders despite all of her struggling. The face looked familiar to the prince of Pherea, but exactly who it was evaded the prince's knowledge at all.

"Minions!" shouted the cloaked figure's voice. "Come!"

"Hey!" shouted the female figure that was in the cloaked figure's grasp. "Let go of me! You can't—!"

"I can do whatever I want with you, _princess_," spat the cloaked figure.

It was here that Roy realized that the woman being taken captive was none other than Princess Zelda of Hyrule.

Roy almost let out a gasp, but he did not since he knew that his cover would be broken if he gasped.

"Don't you dare insult me, you bastard!" shouted Zelda. "You will regret it later!"

"You're my captive now," said the cloaked figure. "And frankly, nobody can rescue you now, so I suggest you keep your mouth shut if you hope to get the best treatment in this place."

At these words, Roy had to fight back the urge to run up to the guy and punch him in the face, but he knew that doing so would reveal he was there, so he remained hidden behind the tree. His breathing had quickened, however, showing that he was very angry.

The prince then saw a pair of creatures with skin that looked like a strange combination of armor and flesh walk out of the tower, and the cloaked figure forcefully shoved Zelda into their clutches. She did make an attempt to escape them, but the monsters had her bound within seconds.

"Take her away," said the cloaked figure. "When I come back, I expect her to be prepared for everything I plan to use her for. For now, I have business to attend to."

Zelda was led inside of the building by the two creatures, and the doors shut closed behind them.

Roy needed no further information; as soon as the cloaked figure disappeared, he ran out of the forest as quickly as he could in the direction opposite the building in hopes of evading the cloaked man. The trees whizzed by him as he ran, and he sidestepped quite a few trees as he ran out of the forest.

And just after he had gotten to the outer edge of the forest, a spike field came from literally nowhere, levitating in the air around the building and almost killing Roy as he ran out of the forest.

The prince took a look behind him, and sent his fist flying in frustration.

"Damn it!" shouted Roy. "They just blew my chance to meet up with Zelda again!"

Roy sat down on the field of grass that he had just ran onto, sighing in frustration as he brought his hand up to his head, the royal blue of his headband meeting his similarly-colored glove.

It was here that the swordsman realized what else he could do; he remembered that the figure had other things he had to take care of. This in turn meant that if he could rally enough people in a resistance against this man who apparently had plenty of power, he would be able to put up a fight that would end this catastrophe once and for all.

Roy stood up once again when this realization dawned on him, and he looked to his left and his right.

"Well, I think I'll start by going to the right," said Roy. "Zelda, I'll be back. And when I do come back, those minions better be prepared for a massive butt-whooping!"

And he ran off to the right, lavender cape once again flowing behind him as he ran past a series of hills that sloped gently around him.


	4. Chapter 3

Hey, all. What's up?

I have too much to say, so I'll respond to that by not saying much. Except that I got into a fight last Thursday. But I'm better now. :D

And anyways, here's the next chapter. Oh, and Mild Guy, if you're reading this, please leave another kickass review! Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 3

"Oh, dear. Why am I so tired?"

"I certainly don't know. But it's getting to me, too…"

This being said, Peach and Isaac clamored their way through the desert, wondering how they had suddenly gotten so faint in their time of travelling through the wasteland.

It was truly insane; on a normal day, they would have been able to walk through the desert without much of a problem. However, now that their ability to be trophetized had been taken away, they were beginning to feel signs that something else was wrong with the picture.

They decided not to think about it then, however. So they continued walking forwards on their quest through the desert.

At one point, Peach found herself getting suddenly very dizzy.

"Oh, dear…" she said, her hand instinctively going to her forehead as she fell down.

"Peach!" exclaimed Isaac, running to the princess' side as she fell. "Peach, are you okay?"

The princess got up on her arms and looked at Isaac.

"I'm fine," said Peach, a reassuring smile coming to her face as if trying to ease Isaac's fears. "We should get going."

Isaac nodded simply, brilliant sapphires hardening a little as he helped Peach onto her feet again.

"Yeah, we should," said the Venus adept. "There's no point in stopping when we're tired."

Just as they were about to move forward, they looked ahead of them and saw a bunch of monsters; all of them had the same blend of flesh and armor for skin as the others that they had encountered all on their way to the end.

"Oh, dear…" said Peach as she beheld the sight of the group. "Here we go again…"

The Venus Adept let out a heavy sigh, once again brandishing his sword as Peach pulled a vegetable from the ground.

It started the way it always started whenever they had run into the group; the front-runner would charge, and Peach would toss a vegetable. Afterwards, Isaac would leap at the monster, slashing it and making it disintegrate into the pool of blood that always formed whenever they were defeated. The monotony of it all was beginning to get to the both of them, and as Peach pulled another vegetable from the ground they kept stony faces as if doing it mechanically.

As the princess tossed the second vegetable, however, she could not help but notice a steady rumbling coming from underneath them. However, she knew that it had to be nothing, so as Isaac slashed at another enemy, the princess ran to the Venus Adept, and she joined the immediate hand-to-hand fight that was going on.

From there, Peach felt waves of doing something envelop her with pleasure, so her expression lightened up a bit. She actually felt better hitting this creature with her frying pan and that creature with her golf club and countering the attack of the other creature with a Toad that she would pull from nowhere, so for her the fight began to get a little more interesting.

Isaac still kept the stony expression he had been wearing since the beginning of the fight, however; for him, there was nothing new or interesting about the fight. Sure, the moves you would make were unpredictable every time, but it was still something of a bore for him to fight the fight. It was beginning to get on his nerves, for he had had to deal with the same thing for the past few hours. That was the only real reason why his blows were hard.

The pools of blood began to form again, with Peach quickly alternating between floating in the air and whacking things with either vegetables or her assortment of bludgeoning weapons and Isaac slashing with his sword and unleashing a quick stone spell whenever time permitted. And as usual, the fight was over a little under four minutes after it began.

By this time, the rumbling underneath their feet had begun to intensify, and the princess looked at the ground, a worried expression gracing her face as she looked down.

"Isaac?" asked Peach apprehensively. "What's going on?"

The Venus Adept began frantically looking around, his eyes finally falling upon something that he certainly never expected to see.

"My god…" gasped Isaac, staggering back as Peach looked at what he was looking at and gasped as well.

In front of them, a huge sandworm had emerged from the ground, its grotesque body flailing about. It sported the same flesh as the smaller creatures had, except now it looked more like normal skin and there were sights of veins pumping blood every which way within the creature. The creature's fangs stood proudly on its mouth as it frayed wildly about; apparently it was hungry, and it would not take no for an answer.

"What is that?" asked Peach.

"It's a sandworm," said Isaac, grabbing his blade and readying it once again. "Be careful; this thing pops up where you least expect it to."

"Well, okay," said the princess, bending down and pulling yet another vegetable from the ground.

Just as the princess pulled the vegetable, the worm plunged back into the earth, the rumbling returning as it began carving vast networks of tunnels onto sand that constantly filled the holes up as they were being carved. But since none of this was visible above the surface, Isaac and Peach looked around frantically, both of them confused.

"Where'd he go?" asked Peach.

After a few seconds of looking frantically around, Isaac suddenly noticed the ground was rumbling directly underneath them very strongly. After looking at the ground and noticing some of the sand grains jumping up excitedly, panic took hold of his being, and it was only by looking at Peach that he was able to regain any sense of rational thought.

"Oh, no…" he stated.

Without any other words coming out of his mouth, the Venus Adept grabbed Peach's hand and wordlessly ran off in a random direction, dragging the princess along with him. In her own fright, she had completely forgotten about the vegetable in her hands, and she dropped it as she was dragged.

"Isaac?" asked Peach as she ran. "What's going—?"

Peach had no time to finish her question, for the sand that they had been standing on finally gave way to the massive earthworm, its head reappearing from under the sand as it writhed around, disappointed that its prey had been replaced by a mere vegetable.

"That's what's going on!" shouted Isaac. "Now get going and attack this thing!

Fright suddenly found itself stuck in Peach's being as she saw the size of the monster, and she gasped as Isaac fired a stone spell at the earthworm that he had been muttering under his breath. When the Venus Adept readied his blade, he nudged Peach in the arm.

"Um, Peach," said Isaac.

The princess was still too distracted by her fear to move, so Isaac literally had to hit her harder, to which the princess finally snapped back into reality.

"Hey!" shouted Isaac. "In case you haven't noticed, you're fighting a gigantic earthworm here! Concentrate more, damn it!"

"But Isaac!" shouted Peach. "This thing—!"

"I don't care what you have to say about it!" shouted the Venus adept. "Just fight the damn thing!"

After this, the princess pulled another vegetable out as Isaac went in for a sword slash. Peach then dashed for the creature, the vegetable making contact with its skin just as Isaac slashed at the worm with his sword.

The worm writhed in pain, its ministrations sending Isaac flying away from the worm and landing just beyond where Peach had managed to jump. The princess let out a yell as she landed, and with fear for Isaac's health coursing through her veins.

"Isaac!" shouted Peach. "Are you all right?"

In no time, however, the Venus adept stood back up.

"I'm okay, thank you," said Isaac. "I think we need to work harder."

"We really do," responded the princess. "We really do."

When Peach finished saying this, the worm ducked under the earth again, and this time they both knew they had to run away, so the fear was pretty much gone by the time the worm rose from the earth again after Isaac and Peach ran away. The princess grabbed her tennis racket, figuring that her vegetables were useless at this point, and the two of them ran at the worm, their hearts screaming phrases of valor as they hacked and whacked away at the tough skin of the giant worm.

The worm writhed again, this time in anger, and then Peach had to pull Isaac off to the side as a new wave of panic swept over her. It was a good thing, too; seconds later, the worm's body slammed into the ground that they had once stood on, and relief filled the both of them.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't have expected that," commented Isaac. "I've never seen one of those things do that before."

The relief was quickly replaced by fear, however, as then the worm began to emit a strange green liquid that made the sand disintegrate.

"Poison?" asked Peach.

"Yes!" shouted Isaac, taking Peach's hand and running away. "Run!"

Without a second thought, Peach got her running pace in tune with Isaac, determined not to get in the green fluid knowing what might happen to her.

Unfortunately, however, the two of them forgot that their circle had to radiate outwards, and so they fell into a hole that had been eaten into the sand by the green liquid. A wave of fear swept through both of them, and Peach screamed as Isaac quickly ran Teleport through his mind.

The two of them got back on the surface just as the worm retreated back into its hole, and after that the panic swept through them again as they ran away as quickly as possible.

The earthworm emerged as it usually did, and this time it immediately proceeded to bash the immediate area with its body, making it impossible for Isaac or Peach to move since they both kept on falling down every time the worm's body hit the ground. It was a very tense moment for both of them, as neither of them could understand what the beast was about to do.

"Isaac, what do we do?" shouted Peach, her eyes shut from all of the thousands of sand grains flying up and trying to blind the princess.

"I don't know!" shouted Isaac.

However, just as the beast began to go in for the bite, out of the corner of her eye Peach noticed a faint glimmer that quickly increased in intensity. And then, just before the creature could get its teeth around the frightened duo, it reeled back in pain as an arrow lodged in its side. The princess looked at it, and then motioned to Isaac.

"Now's your chance!" she whispered. "Go!"

There was no time wasted afterwards, for as soon as the worm was reeling in pain, Isaac launched his most powerful spell in his arsenal; and a giant blade was summoned from seemingly nowhere. As it hacked at the creature, Isaac and Peach both watched the monster struggle in vain against the giant blade, and in no time the creature plopped to the ground dead before it disintegrated into a huge vat of red fluid that then splashed unceremoniously onto the earth below. Some rather large droplets of the fluid landed right next to the two of them, and one drop even landed on Isaac's face. At this, Peach gave a disgusted gesture, after which the Venus Adept wiped the blood off of his face, and he grimaced at how disgusting it was.

"Yuch," said Isaac.

"Really," said Peach. "I'm just glad that thing's dead is all."

"So am I," stated the Venus adept. "About time."

Just then, though, they heard a grunt, and they both turned around to find a man wearing a green tunic and hat standing before them, bow drawn and bright sapphire eyes looking at them, grateful that he had made it in time.

"Link!" exclaimed Peach.

The two of them wasted no time in standing up and running to the man in green.

"How are you?" asked the princess, running in for a hug with Link.

"I'm okay," said Link. "I'm okay."

"Thank goodness," stated Peach, breaking the embrace and gesturing at Isaac. "I trust you know who Isaac is."

"Ah, so you're the famous Isaac that Zelda keeps talking about," said Link. "I'm her friend, Link. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you," replied the Venus adept.

"Would either of you know what that orange aura was?" asked Link.

"Yeah," said Peach. "We can't turn into trophies anymore."

The Hylian gave a confused expression.

"What do you mean?" asked Link.

"We mean that people die," said Isaac. "It was that orange aura, I'm sure of it. And think about it; all of these strange monsters have appeared everywhere since the orange aura began. What's going on here?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," said the Hylian as he rubbed the back of his head. "All I remember is that I was training in the forest when the aura went through. I was actually headed this way to see if Zelda was all right."

"Oh, dear…" said Peach. "You'll be disappointed, then."

"Why?" asked Link.

"The arena was attacked by a cloaked figure who unleashed the orange aura," replied Isaac. "And he summoned all of these pillars of earth. I had teleported out of there with Peach, and when we went back in, Zelda was nowhere to be found. I'm sorry."

"I see…" said the Hylian. "Then I think I might know where she is…"

"What?" asked the princess. "You do?"

"As I was heading over to the arena, some spike field appeared from nowhere," stated the Hylian matter-of-factly. "I have a feeling she might be in there."

"So we have to break in there is all," said the Venus adept.

"It's not that easy, I think," said Link, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I mean, it's like the spikes are on a force field or something."

"No matter what, we have to figure out how to take it down," said Peach. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

"Yeah, what are we waiting for?" asked Link. "Let's move!"

Isaac nodded, and he and Peach followed Link to their next destination.

* * *

Bowser trudged his way through the pillars of earth that had dug through the ground of the arena, carrying a few corpses along his back.

"Damn it…" he muttered to himself. "Why does this have to be so hard? Why can't my lackeys just go in there and do all the dirty work! They could have done it, but no! They just had to complain! Stupid ingrates!"

He grunted in anger after his little mini-rant.

He really had been sent on a rather hard job this time; his superiors sent him to the arena to retrieve a few bodies so that they could be experimented on. His lackeys had refused to enter the arena on the grounds that it was too dangerous to enter it, so the rather frustrated king had to go in there alone for once to handle all of his own work.

The koopa was having a harder time than his lackeys would have, however; he was a large turtle, and since the space between some of the pillars was relatively small, he was having a hard time walking through it. His god-forsaken lackeys could have done the job for him incredibly well.

But no. They had to whine and moan about how they were being 'mistreated' by a new set of superiors, and despite all of the convincing that he was able to do they still would not budge. So the king had to go in there alone, and fitting into places was very hard.

Bowser so happened to walk next to a body.

"Hm…" he said, picking it up. To his dismay, it was just another civilian that he had been picking up.

"Damn it!" he exclaimed, throwing the civilian's body down on the floor of the arena. "Too many civilians! They won't be of any use!"

The king angrily kicked the civilian's body so hard it was sent tumbling down the row of bleachers that made up the viewing area of the arena.

And just as it hit the floor of the arena, the king suddenly noticed a small form leaned up against one of the pillars.

"Hm?" asked the king. "Could it be…?"

A curious expression lighting his face, the koopa jumped down to the arena itself, and then he saw a chimp wearing a red cap on his head.

"It is indeed Diddy Kong…" said Bowser, smirking as he saw it. "He will definitely be of use…"

As his smirk evolved into a wicked smile, he walked up to the small chimp and hoisted the body over his shoulder.

"There we go," said Bowser. "The superiors should be happy now."

And with that, the king of the koopas marched out of the arena, his smile staying on his lips as he marched out.

* * *

_Steady now…_

_That's it…_

_Good. I got him._

_Another puppet for a greater cause. Now get to work, pet. Get to work, and serve me well!_


	5. Chapter 4

Hello, all! I'm back.

So, I just got addicted to _Worms: A Space Oddity_. I don't know, but for some reason, I get a huge kick out of watching worms blow each other up. There's something so... Oh, I can't name it!

Anyways, here's the next chapter in this thing. Enjoy! :D

* * *

Chapter 4

Zelda sat on the cold floor of the prison, its glass remaining cold and vigilant to the world outside of it.

She had decided to stop yelling by then, as the grey steel of the walls dared not listen to her. The princess had been stuck in that cell for Nayru knew how long. There were no windows anywhere, and the only clock was one of the clocks that were so inconveniently out of her viewing range. So she had nothing better to do except to think.

The princess did quite a bit of thinking; she had been praying to Nayru non-stop that Isaac and Peach would be all right, she had been wondering where Donkey Kong was ever since they had captured him, and she had wondered how in the world something like this could have happened.

After a while, though, she had gotten pretty bored with thinking, so she stood up on her cell and began pacing around. She was really accustomed to being bored by this time, and yet it was only her third day of sitting in a cell. The food was okay, but it definitely could have been much better, and the water tasted like steel, so she was confined to walking around all day when she got tired of her thoughts.

And of course, magic was off-limits; somehow sensing that she could break out of there, the people that had captured her placed her in a cell that had a magic seal written all over it. Therefore, she could not even entertain herself with a small little ball of flame.

All of this thinking was beginning to get on her nerves; lately it had been the only thing she could think about, how boring her life had gotten in the cell.

However, just as she was about to stand up, she suddenly felt herself get a strange magnetic attraction to the wall opposite the glass door of the cell.

"What in—?" cried the princess.

She had no time to do anything else, for then she found herself plastered to the wall, facing the door of the cell as it opened.

"What is this?" shouted the princess. "Close the door! Get me away from the wall! I've been—"

"Relax, woman," said the voice of the hooded figure that she had all but gotten accustomed to. "You're just getting some company…"

It was then that the princess' blind rage gave way to the hooded figure holding a blue-haired swordsman by the wrists. With a violent gesture, he tossed the man into the cell, rapidly closing the glass of the cell door after him. Zelda felt herself fall to the ground shortly afterwards, and then looked into the azure orbs of her new companion.

"Ike, yes?" asked Zelda, staring at the mercenary uniform of her companion.

"Yes, madam," said the mercenary, struggling to sit up due to the bonds keeping his wrists together. "I believe we met when Tabuu threatened us all…"

"Indeed we did," said the princess. "Here, let me help you."

Zelda gently grabbed Ike's shoulders and lifted him up so that he was sitting on the floor, feeling the muscles tense under her hands as he did his own part to sit down.

"Thanks," said Ike.

"Nothing to it," replied Zelda. "So how did you wind up in here?"

"They quarantined the tower into a large dome with spikes," said the mercenary. "I was caught in the middle, and some creatures captured me. What about you?"

"Me?" asked the princess. "Mine is an even more complicated story. I was in an arena when that cloaked figure that led you in disturbed a match. And then, he sent an orange aura that went all over the world, and before I know it I'm captured by him."

"So he sent out that orange aura?" asked Ike. "I was wondering what that was…"

At this moment, the bonds holding Ike's wrists together suddenly disintegrated into nothing, the mercenary instinctively holding his hands up to the level of his eyes to see his hands free.

"Well, I didn't think they would do that," said Ike jokingly, looking at Zelda.

"What do these people want with us?" asked the princess.

"I have no idea," said Ike. "We'll figure it out eventually."

Zelda only hoped that help would arrive soon, especially since she was unsure of what was going on.

* * *

Meta-Knight sighed verbally as he walked along the desert.

It was really his only reliable mode of transportation, walking. Ever since the Halberd had been destroyed during the fight against Tabuu, the little ball had only walking to serve him since his wings were unreliable for long-distance travel. Sure, he was able to fly fine, but he was not so confident in his abilities as a flyer to trust himself over long distances.

He had been walking for a very long time mostly to walk towards the ruins. Meta-Knight had seen a whole group of bizarre go in there, and since they had parts of the Halberd, the ball could not help but wonder what was going on in there. The Halberd's parts had sunken into the ocean; how they could have been retrieved was beyond him.

Still, the knight continued on, stopping when he saw a group of about twelve creatures in front of him. The creatures noticed him, and almost immediately they sensed that the little ball meant them some harm. They growled menacingly at him, and got into a stance with which they could easily charge the small traveler.

Unfazed, Meta-Knight withdrew his sword and pointed it straight at the intruders, almost beckoning them to charge him to see what was coming next.

The creatures did what Meta-Knight beckoned them to do, and they charged. However, just as they approached the knight, he jumped up and slashed one of the monsters clear in half so that it was killed before the fight even started. The ball took this opportunity to jump on the head of another creature, slashing at another one and causing considerable damage.

Upon touching down, Meta-Knight suddenly began whirling around so rapidly he became a tornado, and he literally made mincemeat of a third creature that had been standing next to him, its blood getting all over the knight's silver face-mask as he slashed at the creature that he had wounded before.

All of this, and the knight had not experienced a single emotion.

The creatures tried to charge him again, but again Meta-Knight jumped over the horde, slashing at another creature and killing it instantly as well. This time when he landed on the ground, however, he teleported by swinging his cape around him and re-appearing at another spot, so close to one of the creatures that all he had to do was perform a jumping slash and the enemy was finished. After coming out of it, Meta-Knight let his bat wings come out, and he glided over the group of creatures and landed so close to one of them that he was able to land a decisive sword swipe at a creature which killed it.

However, at this time, the knight was able to sense a set of reinforcements coming from behind him. Meta-Knight paid no attention to this, instead teleporting to the other side of the group that he had managed to expertly cut up and continuing the onslaught from there.

He was surprised by how large the reinforcements were, however; there were at least twenty-four creatures in the reinforcements, and he was certain that he would be over-powered by such a small group.

When Meta-Knight had just realized how hard the fight was going to be, from out of the blue, somebody had gotten in there and begun to literally tear the reinforcements apart.

Acknowledging this, Meta-Knight continued hacking away at the group of six that he had begun his work on, finishing rather quickly with a couple of tornadoes that absolutely tore his foes apart. When he was finished, about a dozen of the members of the reinforcements had been cut down as well.

He joined the fray, exchanging blows with some of the beasts that he had encountered right when he entered the fray. And with the help that had arrived, he managed to cut down the remaining creatures.

After Meta-Knight spent a few seconds looking at all of the pools of blood that had formed around him, he looked up to see who the person who had helped him was.

It turned out to be none other than Marth, his blue cape trailing behind him in the wind that went throughout the area in front of the ruins.

Meta-Knight looked up, and the two friends shook hands.

"Sir Marth," said the knight. "A pleasure to see you again."

"Please, call me Marth," replied the prince. "It is indeed great to see you again. What brings you here?"

"I noticed that some of those creatures were bringing in some of the Halberd parts," stated Meta-Knight.

"I noticed it, too," said Marth. "Whatever they are doing in here, they must not be up to any good…"

"I think likewise," said the knight, looking at the ruins. "So let us go in and investigate, shall we?"

"Definitely," replied the prince.

The two of them walked towards the ruins, blades at the ready as they prepared to take on anything they ran into.

* * *

"For the record, I fail to see how people dying can bring power. If you have no people to rule over, you cannot rule at all!"

"Oh, really? You were perfectly willing to suck everything into Subspace last time. What makes you think this is any different, stealing people's lives?"

"Because they remain dead, that is why! Now stop being so difficult!"

"I'm not being difficult. I'm just telling it to you as it is. At any rate, if you feel so strongly about your power complex, why don't you just join the enemy?"

"Sure! I will be glad to do so if it means saving people's lives that I can rule over later!"

"Okay! But when you get crowned as the king of the Smash World, I will not attend it!"

"So be it, then! Goodbye! And if we ever meet again, I will not take it easy on you!"

"Neither will I! Go then!"


End file.
